THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601060117
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
A three-day convention in early February will attract about 10,000 printers from throughout the state and the Eastern Seaboard.
It will be one of about 15 to 20 such gatherings this year in Virginia Beach and 120 over the next three years, and city officials anticipate that, in all, attending conventioneers will spend more than $27 million in the course of their stays here.
Ron Kuhlman, who heads the convention development business for the city, said the printers' show, dubbed Preview Graphics '96 and booked at the Pavilion Convention Center Feb. 1-3, is one of the medium sized get-togethers scheduled by the city through 1999.
It is sponsored by the Print Industries of Virginia and is expected to attract 200 exhibits representing 1,000 companies.
Advanced bookings indicate an influx of 1,500 to 2,000 overnight guests from Washington, D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Virginia.
The bulk of the estimated 10,000 participants will be what Kuhlman describes as ``day-trippers,'' printers from southeastern Virginia who will attend the daily sessions, then return to their homes at night.
``The Hampton Roads area has a lot of printers,'' Kuhlman said. ``A lot of `them will come from small shops, things like Kwik-Kopy. It's a highly technical show.''
Robin Worth, president of the state printers association, said the convention has been moved from Richmond to Virginia Beach, because the resort city offers more convention space, parking and dining and entertainment opportunities.
``We outgrew Richmond,'' said Worth, a Richmonder himself. ``This is the capital city and it's more legislative oriented here.''
The convention was first held in Norfolk in 1988 and has grown to be one of the largest printing gatherings on the East Coast, Worth claims.
Pavilion staff members have been working with Worth's organization for the past year to ready the convention center for the show. Of particular importance were preparations to hook up working presses and other modern printing equipment, which will consume enough electricity to light up 12 city blocks, said Kuhlman.
In addition to taking a look at technical advances in the printing field, attendees can avail themselves to seminars conducted by industry experts, fields trips and a Saturday night awards banquet to cap the three-day show.
Worth said one of the main attractions of Virginia Beach was a plan in the works to expand the Pavilion convention facilities to handle even bigger shows.
City officials and resort merchants foresee a $35-million Pavilion expansion, which would triple the size of the structure in the next five or six years.
It is included in the $93-million Tourism Growth Initiative Fund, a special revenue pot that outlines a dozen or so building projects - such as the $35-million Virginia Marine Science Museum expansion - designed to beef up the local tourism business. by CNB